The MOFI performs best when it has the best signal strength from the cellular tower. The Received Signal Strength and the Signal Quality are two indicators of the quality of the connection to the tower. Good signal strength is typically better than -100, e.g. -90 or -95. Good signal quality is a more positive number, like +5 or 0 and indicates the amount of distortion or noise in the received signal. If you have a poor signal strength (like -104 or -110), you typically have worse transmission speeds. But you can have good signal strength (like -90) and poor signal quality (like -14) and you still have poor speeds because the received signal, although strong, is noisy. So it is harder for the modem to pull the data signal out of the received signal.
Do the following to find the best of both:
Put the MOFI router on an extension cord so you can move it around your home. Make sure the two paddle antennas are snugly screwed onto the MOFI's 3G/4G/LTE antenna jacks.
Using your smartphone's browser, bring up the MOFI's signal strength page. Enter 192.168.10.1 in the address bar, the place where you would typically type www.oliveip.com
Enter admin for the password and log in.
When the Overview page loads, Click on the "Check Signal Strength" button
Slowly walk around your home holding your MOFI router and watching the signal strength screen. You'll see the green bars, the Signal Strength and Signal Quality numbers change as you move around. The change isn't instantaneous, so pause after each move to give the numbers a chance to be refreshed. You want both to be as positive a number as you can get; e.g. a Signal Strength of -90 is better than -100 and a Signal Quality of -7 is better than -17.
Keep the router near the outside walls of your home as you walk around. You'll probably find the signal strongest when it is near a window. The signal is also typically strongest the higher you are above ground. Basements typically do not get great signal.
Once find the location with the strongest signal, leave the MoFi there.
If you don't find a strong enough signal, or the MOFI isn't connecting well to the tower, please repeat the above procedure but do it outside, walking around the exterior of your home. If you get a better signal strength outside of your home, then it may be worth getting an exterior antenna that can bring the better outside signal inside to the MOFI. We can provide you a recommended antenna configuration that many of our members use - just let us know if you want the details. The components can all be purchased on Amazon and cost about $100 - $170 depending on the cable length you need.